” Federal officials said at a news conference Wednesday that 13 current and former law enforcement officers are accused of protecting cocaine and heroin shipments along the East Coast.

All were arrested Wednesday morning after a two-year undercover investigation called “Operation Rockfish”.

” Corruption in local government – especially involving law enforcement – threatens the social compact that binds our communities together,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell in a statement.

In addition to the 13, two more civilians are also charged with conspiring to distribute controlled substances and conspiring to use and carry firearms during and in relation to drug trafficking offenses.

Some are also charged with attempted extortion, attempted possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, money laundering, federal programs bribery and use and carry of firearms during and in relation to crimes of violence and drug trafficking offenses.

Here’s the full list:

-Lann Tjuan Clanton, 36, a correctional officer with the Virginia Department of Corrections;-Ikeisha Jacobs, 32, a deputy with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Jason Boone, 29, a deputy with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Wardie Vincent Jr., 35, formerly of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Adrienne Moody, 39, a correctional officer with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety;-Cory Jackson, 43, formerly of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Jimmy Pair Jr., 48, a deputy with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Curtis Boone, 31, a deputy with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office;-Antonio Tillmon, 31, a police officer with the Windsor City Police Department;-Alaina Sue Kam Ling, 27, a correctional officer with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety;-Kavon Phillips, 25, a correctional officer with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety;-Crystal Pierce, 31, of Raleigh, North Carolina;-Alphonso Ponton, 42, a correctional officer with the Virginia Department of Corrections;-Thomas Jefferson Allen II, 37, a deputy with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office; and-Tosha Dailey, 31, a 911 dispatch operator for Northampton County.”

” While at a rest stop outside Richmond, Va., truck driver Kevin Kimmel caught a glimpse of a distraught-looking young woman behind the curtain of a recreational vehicle. Kimmel became suspicious and called the police. Jon Burkett reports.”

” To the casual observer it appears that Virginia is run by violent psychopaths. That’s the takeaway from the recent report of an anti-poker SWAT team raid in Fairfax County, in which eight assault rifle-sporting police officers moved against ten card-playing civilians. The police possibly seized more than $200,000 from the game, of which 40 percent they eventually kept.

There was no indication that any of the players was armed. As a matter of fact, it appears that a gambler is more likely to be shot without provocation by the Fairfax Police than the other way around. The heavy firepower at the Fairfax raid was apparently motivated by the fact that “at times, illegal weapons are present” at such poker games, and that “Asian gangs” have allegedly targeted such events in the past. This is, then, a novel approach to law enforcement: as a matter of policy, Fairfax police now attempt to rob and steal from people before street gangs get around to doing it.

It is a mystery why we put up with this obscene police behavior. Gambling itself is not illegal in Virginia; it is simply controlled by the state. So the Fairfax police department did not bust these hapless poker players with guns drawn for doing something trulyimmoral and fully outlawed, merely for doing something in a way not approved by the state legislature. Were gambling actually forbidden in Virginia, then a crackdown could at least be understood, if not condoned in so paramilitary a fashion. Yet Virginia’s stance on the matter is not to treat gambling as malum in se, but rather as an instrumentum regni: our government prefers to funnel gambling money into its own coffers for its own ends, outlaw the same thing when it’s done outside of the state’s jurisdiction, and then steal the money of the poor fellows who happen to get caught. “

” Two female Marine officers who volunteered to attempt the Corps’ challenging Infantry Officer Course did not proceed beyond the first day of the course, a Marine Corps spokesperson confirms to the Free Beacon. The two were the only female officers attempting the course in the current cycle, which began Thursday in Quantico, Virginia.

With the two most recent drops, there have been 29 attempts by female officers to pass the course since women have been allowed to volunteer, with none making it to graduation. (At least one woman has attempted the course more than once.) Only three female officers have made it beyond the initial day of training, a grueling evaluation known as the Combat Endurance Test, or CET. Male officers also regularly fail to pass the CET, and the overall course has a substantial attrition rate for males.

The Marine Corps spokesperson, Captain Maureen Krebs, told the Free Beacon that the two officers, “did not meet the standards required of them on day one in order to continue on with the course.” Fifteen male officers also did not meet the standards. Of the 118 officers who began the course, 101 proceeded to the second day.

The Marine Corps, along with the other services, has been evaluating how to comply with the order to gender-integrate its combat arms specialties by the end of this year, or apply for special exemptions.

The results of the Marine Corps’ experimentation thus far has revealed a pattern: Female enlisted Marines have been able to graduate from the enlisted School of Infantry’s Infantry Training Battalion in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, though at a lower rate than male enlisted Marines, while female officers have faced great difficulty in graduating from the course in Quantico. “

” A Naval engineer is facing federal charges for allegedly giving an undercover FBI agent secret documents on a new aircraft carrier being built in Norfolk, Va.

Saudi-born Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Yorktown, Va., was arrested Friday on an FBI affidavit claiming he planned to use a dead-drop location along a secluded hiking trail to hand off secret information about the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, set to be delivered to the Navy in 2016, Fox News reported Saturday.

During a hotel meeting on Oct. 9, Mr. Awwad gave the undercover agent, posing as an Egyptian spy named “Yousef,” secret drawings of the vessel and “discussed where to strike the vessel with a missile in order sink it,” the affidavit says.

Mr. Awwad cried as he was led into a courtroom for a hearing on Saturday, The Virginian Pilot reported. A magistrate judge ordered Mr. Awwad be detained until a second hearing on Wednesday..

According to the affidavit, Mr. Awwad was born in Saudi Arabia, married a U.S. citizen in Cairo in 2007 and took steps to become a U.S citizen.

He was hired to work at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s nuclear engineering and planning department in February and received security clearance in August.”

” An unmanned cargo rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded Tuesday over a launchpad in Virginia.

No injuries were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA’s commercial spaceflight effort.

The accident at Orbital Sciences Corp.’s launch complex at Wallops Island was sure to draw criticism over the space agency’s growing reliance on private U.S. companies in this post-shuttle effort.

NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX company to make station deliveries, and it’s counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as 2017. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said there was nothing on the lost flight that was urgently needed by the six people living on the space station.

Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket blew up over the launch complex, just six seconds after the liftoff. The company said everyone at the site had been accounted for, and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities.”

” It probably seemed like a bright idea at the time: Let the police seize the ill-gotten gains of alleged drug dealers and other suspected criminals and sell it, using the proceeds to buy much-needed crime-fighting gear.

Unfortunately, the process—civil asset forfeiture—did not require convicting anybody of a crime. In fact, it didn’t even require charging anybody with a crime. Not surprisingly, this led to rampant abuse, which has been abundantly documented for many years. Various reform efforts, including a 2000 federal law, have been unable to stop what’s become known as policing for profit.

But Virginia lawmaker Mark Cole is going to give it another shot. That’s as good a sign as any that civil asset forfeiture has jumped the shark. “

We wish Mr Cole good luck . Legalized theft , aka civil asset forfeiture , is an abuse that is completely incompatible with the spirit of America as well as being blatantly unconstitutional .

” A documentary shown in a Virginia high school that some parents say is too sympathetic to the 9/11 terrorists is outraging some parents.

The video, called “Searching for the Roots of 9/11” was produced by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman and aired on the Discovery Channel in 2003. It examines “Muslim anger” at America and – some say – paints an all-too-kind picture of their motives.

Blogger Tom White first reported on the issue after concerned parents contact him.

The video was shown to Hanover High School students in a history class. It was not part of the official curriculum.”

” After battling authorities for more than a year, a Portsmouth, Virginia, man was handed a verdict of not guilty by a jury who determined that he did not, in fact, act recklessly when he fired a warning shot at officers who attempted to make forcible entry into his home, only to later discover that they had gone to the wrong house.

The incident, which happened last January, unfolded while Brandon Watson and his wife were watching late-night TV and heard noises coming from the back yard.

“ She said, ‘Oh my gosh, someone is in the backyard,’” Watson told reporters. “The noises got closer and then she heard the clicking of the backdoor handle.”

Watson didn’t immediately call 911 because he couldn’t find his cell phone. However, he wasn’t about to let anyone come into his home and possibly harm his family either. So he ran back downstairs, gun in hand.

Watson called out into the darkness, saying, “Who is that? I have a gun.”

He received no response, but instead then saw a red laser aimed at his chest.”

So the man did what any law-abiding , self-reliant citizen would do to protect his home and loved ones …

” At the point, still not knowing who was trying to get into his home, Watson fired a warning shot through the window and ran across the street to seek help from his neighbor, a Virginia State Trooper.

Then things became even more confusing for Watson. As he ran out of his house he was confronted by authorities who told him to drop his weapon. He complied.

“ They said, ‘We just got news you shot at an officer.’ I said, ‘An officer? Nobody came to my door. What do you mean an officer? I didn’t know there were any officers in my backyard,’” he said.

According to Watson, the cops never announced who they were or why they were there. And the officers, responding to a call from Watson’s neighbor about a possible break-in, had apparently gone to the wrong house.”

Not only did Mr Watson have the intestinal fortitude to engage in armed conflict in defense of home and hearth , he refused to knuckle under to a judicial system rigged to favor the prosecutors and police and forced a jury trial . The jury is to be commended for making a bold statement with regard to the sanctity of the home and the increasing lawlessness of the “law” .

” The judge found Watson guilty, but the matter was far from resolved. Watson appealed the decision and a mistrial was declared by the second judge. Watson then requested a jury trial.

“ This can’t be doing your job. You come in my backyard, try to open my door, open my window and flash red laser beams on my chest because you thought I was the burglar, and I thought you were the burglar,” Watson said.

And apparently the jury, who deliberated for a total of 47 minutes, agreed.

In fact, the jury felt Watson actually showed restraint by only firing a single warning shot.”

That last line is a fabulous statement on individual rights … Mr Watson “showed restraint by only firing a single shot” … You gotta love it …

” Another family has come forward claiming Petersburg Police came on their front porch and tried to stop them from shooting video of arrests happening right in front of their home.

The family reached out to the On Your Side Investigators and shared dramatic cell phone video. The incident led to a violent confrontation.

Cell phone video shows JaQuan Fisher, 17, standing on his own front porch recording the arrests happening on Rome Street. In the video, an officer is heard saying, “Unless you want me to take your phone from you,” before there is a struggle and video goes to black.

” I was right here. I pulled out my phone,” JaQuan said, pointing to where he was standing.

Petersburg Police had just busted several people at a home next door. They were handcuffing the suspects in front of Fisher’s home. He walked out onto the porch and his cousin—who was one of the people being arrested–yelled, “Start recording.” “

” An influx of illegal and unaccompanied immigrant children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in U.S. border towns is causing the federal government to look elsewhere around the country to house them. But many Americans oppose the placement of illegal immigrants in their communities.”

” In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.

The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.

Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.

Cantor’s loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.

Brat had been a thorn in Cantor’s side on the campaign, casting the congressman as a Washington insider who isn’t conservative enough. His message apparently scored well with voters in the 7th District.

” There needs to be a change,” said Joe Mullins, who voted in Chesterfield County Tuesday. The engineering company employee said he has friends who tried to arrange town hall meetings with Cantor, who declined their invitations.

Tiffs between the GOP’s establishment and Tea Party factions have flared in Virginia since Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli lost last year’s gubernatorial race. Cantor supporters have met with stiff resistance in trying to wrest control of the state party away from Tea party enthusiasts, including in the Cantor’s home district.”

” A University of Virginia student charged last year with assaulting ABC agents attempting to stop her for underage possession beer that turned out to be sparkling water has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the state and seven agents.

Instead of beer, a friend of Elizabeth K. Daly, now 21, had purchased a case of canned water from a Charlottesville grocery. Daly said she was terrified when plainclothes agents surrounded her car and banged on the windows ordering her to roll them down.

After one agent drew a gun and another jumped on the car hood, she said she panicked, unsure they were really agents, and fled the scene in her car, grazing two of the agents. The charges were later dropped, and her record was expunged.”

Regular readers may recall our post on this incident from July of last year in which her passenger’s call to 911 can be heard . Six unidentified armed men swarmed the young woman’s car over an alleged case of beer , surely in these times of busted municipal and state budgets there are better things for law enforcement to be spending their time on than scaring the crap out of a college student over sparkling water .

Read the rest here and hope the State has to pay through the nose for their idiocy and arrogance .

“They were just walking in the mall, and the guys came up to him and wanted to fight DaQuan and his friend,” Towanna Stovall said. “They said, ‘No we got our kids with us.’ They basically said, ‘We don’t care whether you got your kids with you or not, we are going to do this.’ They hit my goddaughter and punched her in the eye. They also jumped on DaQuan and his friend.”

” On Twitter, several people said the fight started over a pair of panties. Whatever the reason, black mob violence is a regular feature of life at this mall – and others in the area.”

” The US army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training exercises.

The 300 acre ‘town’ includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone.”

One commenter asked , ” Does it look like a middle eastern city , or an American city ? ” A very pertinent question and one that these pictures from the Telegraph help to answer . What do you think ?

Looks pretty down home American to us …

” Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages.

The subway carriages even carry the same logo as the carriages in Washington DC

There are also bridges and several other structures which can be transformed into different scenarios.

The $96 million is designed to meticulously “replicate complex operational environments and develop solutions“. “

This “future battlefield” is located on the grounds of Ft AP Hill in eastern Virginia just 80 miles south of DC .

38.120609,-77.266037

No expense was spared during the construction of the “mock city” as these photos from the construction companies involved can attest . It’s nice to know that in times of economic hardship the State is being so responsible with taxpayer funds .

As with everything else involving the government and it’s spending the initial budget was set at between $55 – $61 million yet ended up costing over 50% more than “expected” .

This video from one of the contractors involved in the project gives a good overview of the kind of detail that went into the construction of the “fake city”.

” W. M. Jordan Company is providing construction services for the Asymmetric Warfare Group Training Complex at Fort AP Hill, Virginia. The $63 million complex is designed to prepare military troops in anti-terrorism exercises. Spread over 92 acres, this 25-building training facility features a mock town with various building facades, a Training and Support Center, and an indoor firing range. These training areas are connected by roads of differing qualities with various obstacles such as sand, bridges, tunnels and rough terrain in order to simulate real-world environments. “

While we recognize the need for training in the field of asymmetrical warfare in these times of conflict with organizations other than standing armies we can’t help but feel that the expenditure of nearly $100 million dollars to build a replica American city , especially given the current administration’s demonstrably anti-American , unconstitutional proclivities , is a harbinger of terrible preparations being made by our army for operations that would surely violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 :

” The text of the Posse Comitatus Act, which is still in effect (as 18 U.S.C. Section 1385), reads:

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Today, the Posse Comitatus Act has taken on a very different meaning from the one that it had in 1878. No longer associated with Reconstruction, it is a useful way to prevent the U.S. armed forces from directing their efforts against U.S. dissident groups. Public sentiment in favor of the Posse Comitatus Act is so strong that a 2006 law permitting an exception to the Act in cases of public disasters (in response to Hurricane Katrina) was repealed a year later.”

This is an alarming development on many levels , not least of which is the idea that the US Army expects to be occupying cities , whether foreign or domestic in the near future . If the training is to be for action in foreign cities then we are obviously not about to give up on the foreign adventurism that is so contrary to our Founders ideals and if the training is for domestic operations then the patriots among us who have always held the belief that the military of all branches of the State would side with the people in defense of the Constitution .

While much is made of the protections afforded the citizens of the US from the use of the army against them in the Posse Comitatus Act , the real danger to our liberties embodied in this new asymmetrical warfare training center lie in the Insurrection Act of 1807 wherein Congress granted the president sweeping powers during times of “unrest” ….

” The 2007 Defense Authorization Bill, with over $500 billion allocated to the military, and which also contained the changes to the Insurrection Act of 1807, was passed by a bipartisan majority of both houses of Congress: 398-23 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate.[4] For military forces to be used under the provisions of the revised Insurrection Act, the following conditions must be met:

(1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to–

(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that—

(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; and

(ii) such violence results in a condition described in paragraph (2); or

(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such insurrection, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condition described in paragraph (2).

(2) A condition described in this paragraph is a condition that–

(A) so hinders the execution of the laws of a State or possession, as applicable, and of the United States within that State or possession, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or

(B) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

The deck is already stacked against the supporters of Constitutionally limited government and the fact that the army saw fit to expend such huge sums of our tax-payer dollars to build a facility to train to fight a domestic war should give all who value liberty and expect the military forces of the US to behave accordingly serious pause .

” Martha Boneta, owner of Liberty Farms in Virginia, was fined $5,000 dollars per day after the zoning administrator saw a picture of the birthday celebration on her Facebook page. Boneta was found in violation of selling farm products, such as goats’ milk soap and honey products.

“Let me get this straight,” Steve Doocy questioned on Fox and Friends, “You are in the business of selling farm products and you get in trouble for selling farm products?!” “

” Less than a week after taking office, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is already facing criticism for using his appointment powers as a political tool.

On Wednesday, McAuliffe appointed consultant Boyd Marcus to one of the most lucrative patronage positions in the state government, the Alcoholic Beverages Control (ABC) board. The position is expected to pay at least $124,000 a year, according to local media sources.

Marcus had been a campaign consultant for Republicans for decades, but unexpectedly switched sides last election. He was allegedly offered more money by the McAuliffe campaign. According to former Cuccinelli adviser Chris LaCivita, Boyd also knew the forthcoming ABC appointment was compensation for working on McAuliffe’s campaign.”

” In an outrageous ad aired on the local Washington D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-4, Virginia Democratic state senate candidate Jennifer Wexton – running to replace newly elected Virginia attorney general Mark Herring – made a shocking comparison between violent rapists that she once tried as a prosecutor to “Tea Party Republicans” in the Virginia legislature. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

After describing women being assaulted and “traumatized again by facing the criminal in court,” Wexton made this declaration: “…as a prosecutor I put violent offenders in prison. In the Virginia Senate, I’ll fight just as hard against Tea Party Republicans who would take away a woman’s health care and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest.” “

” A Virginia couple who put up $1 million and 37 acres of rural land to help brothers in arms are learning the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished.

Ken and Julia Falke, who opened the Boulder Crest Retreat for Wounded Warriors in September, are on the receiving end of a $10,000 property tax bill from Loudoun County.

Ken Falke told Fox News in a story broadcast Thursday that the couple — operating the site as a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization — is providing wounded veterans with services “the county can’t afford to deliver, the state can’t afford to deliver, and I guess arguably the federal government is not delivering.” “

” A Virginia license plate with the Tea Party-embraced “Don’t Tread on Me” logo is a big seller, suggesting the movement remains popular, at least in the state, even after a tough loss in this year’s gubernatorial election.

At least five other states also sell the specialty plates: Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. But in Virginia, the tag ranks No. 2 among such plates approved in the past five years and ninth among more than 200 total.

The tag was issued to roughly 21,800 Virginia-registered vehicles in just the first 20 months of sales, according to state figures reported by The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

The sales figures for the “Don’t Tread on Me” plates indicate more than just Tea Party members are buying them, which Dwyer suggests is an indication the movement’s mantra of less-government and no new taxes resonates with many Americans.”

When she was 73, the housewife decided it was time to make a lifestyle change.

” I decided I had cooked enough meals and kept them hot for him all these years that one day I told him, ‘You stay home. I’m goin’ huntin.’ Never been huntin’ before,” she said. So far she has bagged eight deer, one an 8-point buck. “I’m probably the oldest lady hunter on the Eastern Shore.”